Heirloom Beauty: A Fresh Chapter for a Family Treasure
This antique dining table—rich with history and heart—was brought in for a well-deserved refresh. Once lovingly refinished with linseed oil years ago, it had gracefully weathered many meals and memories. But time and use had taken their toll, and it was ready for a new chapter.
Our goal wasn’t to erase the character built over generations but to enhance and preserve it. A fresh coat of stain brought out the beautiful grain and timeless charm, ensuring that great-great-grandma’s table is ready to host many more gatherings, dinners, and stories in the years to come.
A true honor to refinish such a meaningful piece.
These solid wood tables may wear over the years but are easy enough to restore with some elbow grease.
First step was to clean the table well with cleaner and a rag to remove anything on the surfaces on all sides.
Another wipe to remove dust, this time I wiped with mineral spirits again to be sure surface was clean.
The leaves finish was still in great shape so they were lightly scuff sanded with a 180 grit sanding pad then wiped clean of dust. The table base was done as well as its finish was still in great shape too.
Everything was ready to go now.
What an incredible cosmic coincidence. I grabbed an old newspaper to use as a drop cloth, and as I opened it, the center page unfolded a birth announcement—for my customer's granddaughter, no less! It's as if the universe held onto that tiny, meaningful detail just for me to find, a little reminder of how connected everything truly is
This is my go to FAVORITE high traffic surface refinishing product. I have used it on so many projects.
This continued for the leaves and the base as well.
First coat on and left to dry on the tops.
And the bottom. This table is made of various wood species which stains differently. The walnut blends the colors more harmoniously on the base but the tops need a bit darker tone.
The leaves are darker too not having been sanded to bare wood.
You can see the difference the cappuccino stain finishing oil deepens the top to match the base better. Two coats of this color were put on as usual.
Things look lovely but I ran into a problem for the first time with this product not curing and it all had to do with an unusual rainy summer here in Alberta, Canada.
The 3 coats of SFO on the tabletop were super slow to dry and felt tacky for a week.
Being a custom refinished table I did not want any issues with tackiness so I stripped the layers off the table top using EZ Strip paint & varnish stripper to start over.
The stripper was neutralized with water after scraping off the stain and left to dry.
And a cleaning wipe with mineral spirits.
When the top was good and dry I started again applying cappuccino stain finishing oil for the first coat this time to get the darker base color and let this single coat dry for a few days till dry to the touch.
Then I repeated with 2 coats of walnut, a coat of clear and then a final coat of cappuccino stain finishing oil.
Each coat was completely DRY before applying the next. And when dry the coat was lightly sanded, wiped with dry cloth before applying next.
This is the normal procedure however the high humidity has never been an issue in the past and usually each coat takes about 12 hours to dry. This project took weeks to complete.
PATIENCE was the key, allowing the product to dry fully between coats.
Finally it was ready to go back home.
There is so much character in this table, years of memories and gatherings.
The customers did not want Grandma's table to look new but rather have a fresh new surface to gather around for years to come.
Back at home
It looks perfect.
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What a beautiful job you did refinishing this dining table. Saw your post at SSPS#376. My shares this week are 75 thru78. Enjoy each day and be well. Warm regards, Nancy Andres @ Colors 4 Health
ReplyDeleteThank you kindly Nancy!! I appreciate you stopping by
DeleteLovely set...mine needs a redo of some sort, form the 19870's and was mistakenly stained with acrylic stain in the 1970's and poly sealed...gosh it needs to be stripped, we will see. Sandi
ReplyDeleteHi Sandi, stripping isn't as daunting as it used to be. Give it a go :)
DeleteLooks great!
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
DeleteBeautiful result! I wish you lived near, I would want to be one of your customers!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jeanne, you are so very kind!!
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